Topic 5- Social Influence

Question 1

Strengths Of Zimbardo

Answer 1

Participants were immersed in the prison environment - Possibly ecologically valid

Question 2

Weaknesses Of Zimbardo

Answer 2

Possible lack of ecological validity
Still a possibility that the participants were acting the way they thought they were expected to
Ungeneralisable
Sample only included male college students
Hard to generalise to real-life prisons

Question 3

Strengths of Piliavin

Answer 3

Study was conducted in a naturalistic environment (a subway) on passengers who regularly use the subway to commute
participants were unaware of being observed, so they behaved normally

Question 4

Weaknesses of Zimbardo

Answer 4

Passengers did not give their consent to take part in the experiment
Situation could have caused distress to participants

Question 5

Milgram’s Results

Answer 5

When confederate is in the room-65% obeyed compared to 22.5% on the telephone.
When two confederates withdrew from the experiment. 10% shocked at 450V
Obedience 47.5% at a rundown building
Obeyed the firefighter more compared to a normal citizen- 20%
Instructed someone else to shock 90%

Question 6

Piliavin’s Results

Answer 6

62 out of 65 trials with the victim with cane, passengers helped before the model
19 out of 38 trials where the victim was drunk, passengers helped before the model
81 out of 103 trials victim was helped was helped before model
90% of the first helpers were male